Today in History - August 5
Return to home
1264 Aug 5,
Anti-Jewish riots broke out in Arnstadt, Germany.
(MC, 8/5/02)
1391 Aug 5, Castilian sailors
in Barcelona, Spain set fire to a Jewish ghetto, killing 100 people
and setting off four days of violence against the Jews.
(HN, 8/5/98)
1583 Aug 5, Humphrey Gilbert,
English explorer, annexed Newfoundland in the name of Queen
Elizabeth and founded the first English settlement in the New World.
His colony disappeared. He drowned this same year at sea in a storm
off the Azores.
(HFA, '96, p.36)(TL-MB, 1988, p.23)(SFEM,
11/15/98, p.26)
1664 Sep 5, After days of
negotiation, the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam surrendered to
the British, who would rename it New York. The citizens of New
Amsterdam petitioned Peter Stuyvesant to surrender to the English.
The "Articles of Capitulation" guaranteed free trade, religious
liberty and a form of local representation. In 2004 Russell Shorto
authored "The Island At the Center of the World," a history of New
York's Dutch period.
(HN, 9/5/98)(ON, 4/00, p.3)(WSJ, 3/16/04, p.D6)
1762 Aug 5, Russia, Prussia and
Austria signed a treaty agreeing on the partition of Poland.
(HN, 8/5/98)
1763 Aug 5, Colonel Henry
Bouquet decisively defeated the Indians at the Battle of Bushy Run
in Pennsylvania during Pontiac's rebellion.
(HN, 8/5/98)
1792 Aug 5, Frederick 7th baron
Lord North (60), English premier, died. He presided over Britain's
loss of its American colonies (1770-82).
(MC, 8/5/02)
1802 Aug 5, Niels Henrik Abel
(d.1829), mathematician, was born in Frindoe, Norway.
(Internet)(SFC, 3/26/04, p.A15)
1811 Aug 5, C.L. Ambroise
Thomas, French composer (Mignon, Francoise de Rimini), was born.
(MC, 8/5/02)
1815 Aug 5, A peace treaty with
Tripoli, which followed treaties with Algeria (Jun 30) and Tunis
(Aug 28), brought an end to the Barbary Wars. Commodores Stephen
Decatur and William Bainbridge had conducted successful operations
against the Barbary States of Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli.
(HN, 8/5/98)(WSJ, 10/9/01, p.A22)(ON, 10/06,
p.10)
1850 Aug 5, Guy de Maupassant,
short story writer and author of "The Necklace," was born.
(HN, 8/5/98)
1858 Aug 5, Cyrus W. Field
completed the first transatlantic cable. It linked Newfoundland to
Ireland. The line went completely dead in October. William Thompson
oversaw the operation at sea aboard the HMS Agamemnon, which laid
half the cable. The other half was laid by the USS Niagara. The
cables had been spliced at a central meeting point on June 26. A new
attempt to lay newly designed cable failed in 1865. Another attempt
in 1866 succeeded.
(www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/cable/peopleevents/e_inquiry.html)(AP,
8/5/08)(ON, 10/10, p.2)
1860 Aug 5, Joseph Carey
Merrick, "Elephant Man," was born.
(MC, 8/5/02)
1861 Aug 5, The US federal
government levied an income tax for the first time to finance the
Civil War. It was 3% of incomes over $800 effective from Jan 1. This
was superseded by the Tax Act of July 14, 1862, which took effect as
of January 1, 1862.
(AP, 8/5/97)(http://tinyurl.com/brzpcg3)
1861 Aug 5, US Army abolished
flogging.
(MC, 8/5/02)
1862 Aug 5, Battle of Baton
Rouge, LA.
(MC, 8/5/02)
1864 Aug 5, During the Civil
War, Union Adm. David G. Farragut is said to have given his famous
order, "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!" as he led his fleet
against Mobile Bay, Ala. The Union Navy captured Mobile Bay in
Alabama.
(AP, 8/5/97)(HN, 8/5/98)
1876 Aug 5, Mary Ritter Beard,
American historian and writer, was born.
(HN, 8/5/00)
1884 Aug 5, The cornerstone for
the Statue of Liberty was laid on Bedloe's Island in New York
Harbor.
(THC, 4/10/97)(AP, 8/5/97)
1890 Aug 5, Erich Kleiber,
conductor (NBC Symphony 1945-46), was born in Vienna, Austria.
(MC, 8/5/02)
1891 Aug 5, The 1st travelers
checks were issued by American Express.
(MC, 8/5/02)
1891 Aug 5, Henry Charles
Litolff (73), French pianist, composer, died.
(MC, 8/5/02)
1892 Aug 5, Harriet Tubman
received a pension from Congress for her work as a nurse, spy and
scout during the Civil War.
(HN, 8/5/98)
1895 Aug 5, Friedrich Engels
(b.1820), English socialist who collaborated with Karl Marx on “The
Communist Manifesto” (1848) and “Das Kapital” (1867), died. Engels
had edited the second and third volumes of Das Kapital after Marx's
death (1883). In 2009 Tristram Hunt authored “Marx’s General: The
Revolutionary Life of Friedrich Engels.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Engels)
1906 Aug 5, John Houston, film
director of such movies as "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" and
"The Maltese Falcon," was born in Nevada, Mo.
(HN, 8/5/98)(MC, 8/5/02)
1908 Aug 5, Miriam Rothschild,
English scientist and writer, was born.
(HN, 8/5/00)
1914 Aug 5, One of the first,
if not the first, electric traffic light systems were installed in
Cleveland, Ohio.
(AP, 8/5/07)
1914 Aug 5, The British
Expeditionary Force mobilized for World War I.
(HN, 8/5/98)
1915 Aug 5, The Austro-German
Army took Warsaw, in present-day Poland, on the Eastern Front.
(HN, 8/5/98)
1916 Aug 5, The British navy
defeated the Ottomans at the naval battle off Port Said, Egypt.
(HN, 8/5/98)
1916 Aug 5, George Sainton Kaye
Butterworth (31), composer, died.
(MC, 8/5/02)
1923 Aug 5, Richard G.
Kleindienst, one of the key officials who helped elect Richard Nixon
to the presidency in 1969, was born.
(HN, 8/5/98)
1924 Aug 5, The comic strip
"Little Orphan Annie" by Harold Gray (d.1968) made its debut in the
NY Daily News. Daddy Warbucks was her millionaire guardian. Leonard
Starr took over the strip in 1979. Her image was updated in 2000 by
cartoonist Andrew Pepoy. [see Oct 5]
(AP, 8/5/97)(SFEC, 10/17/99, p.C12)(SFC, 6/12/00,
p.A2)
1924 Aug 5, The San Francisco
Bay Area town of Colma was incorporated under the name “Lawndale.”
The name was changed in December, 1941, as the US Post Office
declared that there was another Lawndale in California.
(www.colmahistory.org/History.htm)
1926 Aug 5, Houdini stayed in a
coffin under water for 1 hr.
(MC, 8/5/02)
1930 Aug 5, Neil Armstrong, the
first man to walk on the moon, was born in Ohio.
(HN, 8/5/98)
1933 Aug 5, President Franklin
D. Roosevelt established the National Labor Board to enforce the
right of collective bargaining. It was later replaced with the
National Labor Relations Board.
(AP, 8/5/08)(SSFC, 1/18/09, p.D6)
1933 Aug 5, Harry V. Hill (50)
drowned off Yerba Buena Island becoming the 1st fatality in the
construction of the SF-Oakland Bay Bridge.
(SSFC, 8/4/08, DB p.54)
1936 Aug 5, Jesse Owens won his
3rd Olympic medal (200m sprint) at the Berlin Olympics.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Owens)
1941 Aug 5, The German army
completed taking 410,000 Russian prisoners in Uman and Smolensk
pockets in the Soviet Union.
(HN, 8/5/98)
1942 Aug 5, Janusz Korczak and
the children he cared for were taken away by the Nazis from an
orphanage in the Warsaw Ghetto. He chose to stay with the children
in his care as they went together into the gas chambers at
Treblinka. In 2002 a memorial in Warsaw was dedicated to Korczak and
the children.
(AP, 8/6/02)
1949 Aug 5, A bomb exploded at
a synagogue in Damascus, Syria, killing 12 people.
(SSFC, 6/28/09, p.A8)(http://tinyurl.com/loxc6n)
1951 Aug 5, The United Nations
Command suspended armistice talks with the North Koreans when armed
troops are spotted in neutral areas.
(HN, 8/5/98)
1952 Aug 5, In LA, Ca., 14
Communist leaders were convicted of conspiring to overthrow the US
government. 6 of the defendants were from SF, one was from Oakland.
(SFC, 8/2/02, p.E4)
1953 Aug 5, Operation "Big
Switch" was under way as prisoners taken during the Korean conflict
were exchanged at Panmunjom.
(AP, 8/5/03)
1955 Aug 5, The Oakland, Ca.,
fire department ended segregation between black and white fire
fighters.
(SSFC, 2/5/06, p.B7)
1955 Aug 5, Carmen Miranda
(42), singer, actress (Down Argentine Way), died.
(MC, 8/5/02)
1957 Aug 5, "American
Bandstand," a teenage dance show hosted by Dick Clark in
Philadelphia, made its network debut on ABC-TV.
(WSJ, 3/24/97, p.B1)(SFC, 11/10/99, p.E3)(AP,
8/5/07)
1960 Aug 5, Upper Volta,
formerly part of French West Africa, became independent under
Maurice Yameogo. In 1984 it was renamed Burkina Faso.
(WUD, 1994, p.139)(PC, 1992, p.973)(EWH, 4th ed.,
p.1233)
1962 Aug 5, Actress
Marilyn Monroe (36) was found dead in her Los Angeles home. Her
death was ruled a "probable suicide" from an overdose of sleeping
pills. Movie actress, model, singer, Judaism convert, RN: Norma Jean
Mortenson Baker; Joe DiMaggio's, then Arthur Miller's ex-wife. Her
films included "Some Like It Hot." In 1999 Barbara Leaming authored
the biography "Marilyn Monroe." In 1969 Fred Lawrence Guiles (d.2000
at 79) authored "Norma Jean: The Life of Marilyn Monroe."
(AP, 6/1/97)(DTnet, 6/1/97)(SFEC, 1/24/99, BR
p.9)(SFC, 8/1/00, p.B2)
1962 cAug 5, Russia set off a
40-megaton atomic bomb as part of a new test series.
(SFC, 8/6/99, p.A1)(SFC, 11/24/99, p.E9)
1962 Aug 5, Nelson Mandela was
arrested for incitement and illegally leaving South Africa.
(MC, 8/5/02)
1963 Aug 5, The United States,
Britain and the Soviet Union signed a Limited Test Ban Treaty in
Moscow banning nuclear tests in the atmosphere, space and
underwater. Public pressure helped JFK signed the ban on atmospheric
atom bomb tests.
(AP, 8/5/97)(SFC, 11/26/01, p.A10)(SSFC, 7/15/07,
p.D1)
1964 Aug 5, US began bombing
North Vietnam. Lt. Everett Alvarez Jr. was shot down and captured at
Ha Long Bay in Vietnam. Alvarez became the first naval aviator
captured by the North Vietnamese and spent eight-and-one-half years
in captivity. Alvarez later co-authored two books, writing of his
prisoner of war experiences in “Chained Eagle” and “Code Of
Conduct.”
(www.pownetwork.org/bios/a/a038.htm)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everett_Alvarez_Jr.)
1966 Aug 5, Martin Luther King
Jr. was stoned during a march in Chicago.
(MC, 8/5/02)
1966 Aug 5, Beatles released
their "Revolver" album in US.
(MC, 8/5/02)
1966 Aug 5, Beatles released
"Yellow Submarine" and "Eleanor Rigby" in UK.
(MC, 8/5/02)
1968 Aug 5, The Republican
national convention convened in Miami Beach. Ronald Reagan announced
that he would seek the GOP nomination for president. He soon threw
his support to Nixon.
(AP, 8/5/08)(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F6)(SSFC, 6/6/04,
A16)
1969 Aug 5, The U.S. space
probe Mariner 7 flew by Mars, sending back photographs and
scientific data. It returned 127 images of the South Polar icecap
and southern hemisphere. Mariner 6 also flew past Mars this year and
returned 75 images of the Martian equator along with the surface
temperature, atmospheric pressure and composition.
(AP, 8/5/97)(SFC, 12/8/99, p.A19)
1973 Aug 5, Russia launched its
Mars 6 Orbiter.
(http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/masterCatalog.do?sc=1973-052A)
1974 Aug 5, President Richard
Nixon admitted that he ordered a cover-up of the Watergate break-in
for political as well as national security reasons. One of the
secret recordings, known as the "smoking gun" tape, was released. It
revealed that Nixon authorized hush money to Watergate burglar E.
Howard Hunt, and also revealed that Nixon ordered the CIA to tell
the FBI to stop investigating certain topics because of "the Bay of
Pigs thing."
(HN, 8/5/98)(SFC, 12/6/99,
p.B8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Nixon)
1980 Aug 5, Hurricane "Allen"
battered the southern peninsula of Haiti, leaving more than 200 dead
in its wake. Hurricane Allen went on to hit the southeastern US.
(AP, 8/5/00)(SFEC, 6/6/99, p.A17)
1981 Aug 5, Pres. Reagan began
firing 11,500 air traffic controllers who had gone out on strike 2
days earlier.
(AP, 8/5/97)(WSJ, 9/3/96, p.A1)
1984 Aug 5, Actor Richard
Burton (58) died at a hospital in Geneva, Switzerland.
(AP, 8/5/97)
1986 Aug 5, US Senate voted for
the SDI-project, better known as Star Wars.
(http://tinyurl.com/wonw9)
1986 Aug 5, It was revealed
that Andrew Wyeth secretly created 240 drawings and paintings of his
neighbor Helga Testorf, in Chadds Ford, Pa.
(www.rightreading.com/daybook_pages/august.htm)
1987 Aug 5, President Reagan
announced his administration had reached a "general agreement" with
leaders of Congress on a new Central America peace plan. Nicaraguan
President Daniel Ortega offered to discuss the U.S. proposal.
(AP, 8/5/97)
1987 Aug 5, In Sri Lanka Tamil
Tigers began to surrender their weapons to the Indian army, but
later changed course and began to fight the Indians. Official Indian
government aid to the rebels was cutoff but the southern Tamil Nadu
state and rightist Hindu factions of the Indian army continued
helping the rebels.
(SFC, 7/24/96, p.A9)
1988 Aug 5, Treasury Secretary
James A. Baker III announced he was resigning to take over the
presidential election campaign of Vice President George Bush.
Nicholas F. Brady was nominated to take Baker's place at Treasury.
(AP, 8/5/98)
1989 Aug 5, Five Central
American presidents began meeting in Honduras to discuss a timetable
for dismantling Nicaraguan Contra bases.
(AP, 8/5/99)
1990 Aug 5, An angry President
Bush again denounced the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, telling
reporters, "This will not stand. This will not stand, this
aggression against Kuwait."
(AP, 8/5/00)
1990 Aug 5, In Cairo the 19th
Islamic Conference of foreign Ministers adopted the “Cairo
Declaration,” which laid out an alternative view of liberty. The
member states of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC)
attached a rider that the application of all human rights should be
subordinated to sharia law.
(Econ, 4/4/09,
p.63)(www.religlaw.org/interdocs/docs/cairohrislam1990.htm)
1991 Aug 5, US Democratic
congressional leaders formally launched an investigation into
whether the 1980 Reagan-Bush campaign had secretly conspired with
Iran to delay release of American hostages until after the
presidential election. A task force later concluded there was "no
credible evidence" of such a deal.
(AP, 8/5/01)
1991 Aug 5, The Yugoslav army
called off its intervention to Slovenia’s independence.
(SFC, 5/26/96, T-5)
1992 Aug 5, Federal civil
rights charges were filed against four Los Angeles police officers
acquitted of state charges in the videotaped beating of Rodney King;
two were later convicted.
(AP, 8/5/97)
1992 Aug 5, Acting Secretary of
State Lawrence Eagleburger called for a war crimes investigation in
Bosnia-Herzegovina.
(AP, 8/5/97)
1993 Aug 5, The U.S. House of
Representatives passed President Clinton's budget plan by a close
vote of 218-216.
(AP, 8/5/98)
1993 Aug 5, Japan's Cabinet
resigned, paving the way for the end of 38 years of rule by the
Liberal Democratic Party.
(AP, 8/5/03)
1994 Aug 5, A three-judge panel
of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington chose Kenneth W. Starr to
take over the Whitewater investigation from Robert Fiske.
(AP, 8/5/99)
1994 Aug 5, Some desperate
Cubans invaded foreign embassies to demand asylum. Others hijacked
Havana harbor ferries and tried to take them to the United States.
Hundreds of Cubans spilled onto Havana's seaside Malecon boulevard,
picked up rocks and debris from crumbling buildings and hurled them
at police. Fidel Castro arrived in an army jeep to quiet the
disturbance. His appearance prompted some demonstrators to drop
their stones and applaud. In summer of 1994, food and fuel were
scarce and islanders sweated through hours-long blackouts that
stilled fans, air conditioners and water pumps.
(AP, 8/5/09)
1995 Aug 5, Secretary of State
Warren Christopher arrived in Hanoi, Vietnam, to "build a bridge of
cooperation." Christopher was the first US secretary of state to
visit Vietnam since the war and the first ever to go to Hanoi.
(AP, 8/5/00)
1996 Aug 5, In a bold bid to
capture a skeptical public's attention, Republican presidential
candidate Bob Dole proposed a $548 billion tax cut.
(AP, 8/5/97)
1996 Aug 5, US Pres. Clinton
signed the Iran and Libya Sanctions Act. It held that foreign
companies with investments of more than $40 million in the oil and
gas sectors of these nations to be subject to US imposed sanctions.
(WSJ, 8/6/96, p.A14)
1996 Aug 5, A jury in San Jose,
Calif., recommended the death penalty for Richard Allen Davis,
convicted of kidnapping and murdering 12-year-old Polly Klaas.
(WSJ, 8/6/96, p.A1)(AP, 8/5/97)
1996 Aug 5, "Divided They Fell:
The Demise of the Democratic Party, 1964-1996" by Ronald Radosh was
reviewed.
(WSJ, 8/5/96, p.A10)
1996 Aug 5, In Chechnya rebels
began a new raid and seized much of Grozny by the next day.
(SFC, 8/14/96, p.A10)
1997 Aug 5, President Clinton
signed the budget-balancing and tax-cutting bills into law, calling
the legislation "a true milestone for our nation."
(AP, 8/5/98)
1997 Aug 5, Ramzi Yousef,
mastermind of world trade center bombing, went on trial.
(www.fas.org/irp/news/1997/#aug)
1997 Aug 5, It was reported
that a Yale Univ. research team led by Sidney Altman discovered a
way to turn off genes that make bacteria resistant to antibiotic
drugs. Human testing was thought to be 5 years away.
(SFC, 8/5/97, p.A3)(WSJ, 8/5/97, p.A1)
1997 Aug 5, In Bolivia the
Congress elected former dictator Hugo Banzer as president. He
pledged economic reforms and steps to cut poverty.
(WSJ, 8/6/97, p.A1)
1997 Aug 5, In Croatia Pres.
Tudjman took an oath of office for his 2nd 5-year term.
(WSJ, 8/6/97, p.A1)
1997 Aug 5, North Korea agreed
to hold talks with South Korea in New York beginning on this day.
(SFC, 7/1/97, p.A8)
1997 Aug 5, From Russia’s
cosmodrome in Kazakstan a Mir repair mission was launched with a
2-man replacement crew. The smooth launch was upstaged by another
breakdown aboard the aging space station, this time involving oxygen
generators.
(WSJ, 8/6/97, p.A1)(AP, 8/5/98)
1998 Aug 5, Marie Noe of
Philadelphia (69), was arrested and charged with murdering 8 of 10
children by suffocation over a 19 year period (1949-1968). In 1999
Noe (70) pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 20 years probation.
(SFC, 8/6/93, p.A3)(SFC, 6/29/99, p.A2)(AP,
8/5/99)
1998 Aug 5, It was reported
that Ian Murphy, founder of the Freedom Scouts, believed that a
million Indonesians planned to invade the Australia within 5 years.
His organization trained as a guerrilla force to hit and run and
protect Australia from attack.
(SFC, 8/5/98, p.A8)
1998 Aug 5, In Cambodia
election officials declared Hun Sen the winner and int’l. monitors
backed the results.
(WSJ, 8/6/98, p.A1)
1998 Aug 5, In Colombia rebels
overran an antinarcotics base in Miraflores. 30 soldiers were
killed, 50 wounded and 100 were missing.
(WSJ, 8/6/98, p.A1)
1998 Aug 5, In Congo Arthur
Z’Ahidy [Zaidy] Ngoma, a Kinshasa politician, was identified as the
leader of the rebels opposed to Kabila.
(SFC, 8/6/93, p.A12)(WSJ, 8/7/98, p.A1)
1998 Aug 5, In London leaders
of the Anglican Church approved a resolution that said homosexual
activity is "incompatible with Scripture."
(SFC, 8/6/93, p.A12)
1998 Aug 5, In Ecuador 2
earthquakes struck the coast at Bahia de Caraquez and killed 3
people.
(SFC, 8/6/93, p.A14)
1998 Aug 5, In India 18 people
were killed under artillery fire in Kashmir.
(SFC, 8/6/93, p.A14)
1998 Aug 5, In Indonesia a
human-rights group said that graves in Aceh province held bodies of
hundreds of people killed over the last 8 years.
(WSJ, 8/6/98, p.A1)
1998 Aug 5, Iraqi President
Saddam Hussein broke off cooperation with U.N. weapons inspectors
and demanded the commission monitoring the weapons be reorganized.
(SFC, 8/6/93, p.A1) (AP, 8/5/99)
1998 Aug 5, In Israel 2
Israelis were ambushed and killed at a Jewish seminary in Nablus as
they patrolled the boundaries.
(SFC, 8/6/93, p.A12)
1999 Aug 5, Mark McGwire became
the 16th member of the 500-home run club, hitting two homers—
numbers 500 and 501 -- in the St. Louis Cardinals’ loss to San
Diego.
(AP, 8/5/00)
1999 Aug 5, Republicans
overcame solid Democratic opposition to narrowly win passage of a
ten-year, $792 billion tax cut, first in the House, then in the
Senate; President Clinton denounced the bill and promised a veto.
(AP, 8/5/00)
1999 Aug 5, Richard Holbrooke
won Senate confirmation as UN ambassador after a grueling 14-month
battle.
(AP, 8/5/00)
1999 Aug 5, In New Jersey Gov.
Christie Whitman declared a state-wide drought emergency. Gov.
Thomas Carper of Delaware declared drought emergency and mandatory
water restrictions for two-thirds of the state.
(SFC, 8/6/99, p.D6)
1999 Aug 5, In Alabama Alan
Eugene Miller (34) killed 3 people at 2 firms in Pelham. Miller
pleaded not guilty by reason of diminished mental capacity. He was
convicted and sentenced to death. On July 31, 2000, he was assigned
to death row at Holman CF.
(SFC, 8/6/99,
p.A3)(www.users.on.net/~bundy23/wwom/miller2.htm)
1999 Aug 5, Researchers
reported the discovery of a gene that causes narcolepsy in dogs.
(WSJ, 8/6/99, p.A1)
1999 Aug 5, In Afghanistan
rebel forces of Ahmad Shah Massood counter-attacked the Taliban and
recaptured key towns and the Bagram air base.
(SFC, 8/6/99, p.A16)
1999 Aug 5, Kurdish separatist
rebels agreed to accept a cease-fire call by Abdullah Ocalan.
(SFC, 8/6/99, p.A12)
1999 Aug 5, Montenegro proposed
changes to its relationship with Serbia that would dissolve
Yugoslavia and replace it with a loose association.
(SFC, 8/6/99, p.A12)
1999 Aug 5, In Sierra Leone
former RUF soldiers kidnapped over 2 dozen UN military observers,
aid workers and journalists at Okra Hills during a meeting for a
hostage handover.
(SFC, 8/6/99, p.A18)
2000 Aug 5, President Clinton
vetoed a Republican-sponsored tax cut for married couples,
describing it as "the first installment of a fiscally reckless tax
strategy."
(AP, 8/5/01)
2000 Aug 5, Sir Alec Guinness
(86), English film actor, died at a southern England hospital. In
2004 Piers Paul Read authored "Alec Guinness: The Authorised
Biography."
(SFC, 8/7/00, p.A1)(AP, 8/5/01)(Econ, 1/24/04,
p.76)
2000 Aug 5, In Afghanistan
gunmen killed 12 people including 7 Afghans working for the United
Nations’ mine clearing agency in western Herat.
(SFC, 8/7/00, p.A12)
2000 Aug 5, In Colombia
congressman Oscar Tulio Lizcano was abducted by the FARC. He was
freed by a military operation in 2008.
(AP, 10/26/08)
2000 Aug 5, Iran reported that
at least 1000 dogs were killed in Tehran over the last month. Islam
regarded dogs as impure.
(SFC, 8/5/00, p.A22)
2000 Aug 5, UN peacekeeping
troops began spreading out along the border between Israel and
Lebanon.
(SFEC, 8/6/00, p.C9)
2001 Aug 4, In NYC police
officer Joseph Gray (40) ran over Maria Herrera (24), her son Andy
and her sister (16). A baby boy was delivered by c-section but did
not survive. Gray had been drinking with fellow officers at a strip
club. He was later charged with manslaughter for killing the family
while driving drunk on his way to work. Gray was convicted of
manslaughter in 2002 and sentenced to five to 15 years in prison.
(SFC, 8/11/01, p.A6)(SFC, 5/4/02, p.A5)(AP,
8/5/02)
2001 Aug 5, The spacecraft
Galileo flew as close as 120 miles above Io’s north pole and
captured wisps of volcanic gas largely composed of sulfur dioxide.
(SFC, 10/5/01, p.D3)
2001 Aug 5, In Afghanistan the
Taliban closed a US relief organization office and arrested 24 of
its workers for propagating Christianity. The ruling Taliban jailed
eight foreign aid workers, including two Americans, for allegedly
preaching Christianity. The workers were rescued the following
November as the Taliban regime began collapsing during U.S. military
operations.
(SFC, 8/6/01, p.A1)(AP, 8/5/02)
2001 Aug 5, In Brazil a 2-week
police strike in Salvador, Bahia state, was reported to be over.
Threats of strikes remained in other cities due to low wages.
(SSFC, 8/5/01, p.T14)
2001 Aug 5, In Israel a
Palestinian gunman shot into a crowd of soldiers in Tel Aviv and
injured 10 people before he was fatally shot. In 2 other incidents
an Israeli woman was killed in a drive-by shooting and a Palestinian
attempting to plant a bomb in Tulkarm was killed by Israeli troops.
(SFC, 8/6/01, p.A1,A10)
2001 Aug 5, In Macedonia rival
factions agreed to restructure the police force and removed a major
barrier to a peace accord.
(SFC, 8/6/01, p.A8)
2002 Aug 5, Donald L. Kohn and
Ben S. Bernanke took the oath of office as members of the Board of
Governors of the Federal Reserve System. The oath was administered
by Chairman Alan Greenspan in the Board Room. Bernanke put aside his
book in progress, “Age of Delusion: How politicians and central
bankers created the Great Depression,” as a condition of government
service.
(http://tinyurl.com/d7qy6)(WSJ, 12/7/05, p.A15)
2002 Aug 5, Shell Oil agreed to
pay $28 million to the Tahoe Public Utility District to help cleanup
contamination from the gasoline additive MTBE.
(SFC, 8/5/02, p.A17)
2002 Aug 5, The coral-encrusted
gun turret of the Civil War ironclad USS Monitor was raised from the
floor of the Atlantic, nearly 140 years after the historic warship
sank during a storm.
(AP, 8/5/03)
2002 Aug 5, Joshua Ryan Evans
(20), soap opera actor, died.
(AP, 8/5/03)
2002 Aug 5, Chick Hearn (85),
Los Angeles Lakers play-by-play announcer, died.
(AP, 8/5/03)
2002 Aug 5, Dr. Sanford L.
Palay (83), neuroscientist and author of "The Cerebral Cortex" and
other books, died in Concord, Mass.
(SFC, 9/3/02, p.A20)
2002 Aug 5, Matt Robinson (65),
former "Sesame Street" cast member, died.
(AP, 8/5/03)
2002 Aug 5, Winifred Watson
(95), a popular writer of the 1930s who found a new readership in
the 21st century, died in England. His work included the humorous
and risqué novel "Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day" (1938).
(AP, 8/14/02)
2002 Aug 5, Israel announced a
"total ban" on Palestinian travel in much of the West Bank and
sealed off a chunk of the Gaza Strip with tanks in response to
Palestinian attacks on Israelis that killed 13 people over 24 hours.
Israeli helicopters fired missiles at a suspected weapons factory in
Gaza City.
(AP, 8/5/02)(AP, 8/5/07)
2002 Aug 5, Japan launched a
compulsory ID system aimed at bringing government into the
electronic age in the face of stiff protests calling it a violation
of privacy and a temptation to hackers.
(AP, 8/5/02)
2002 Aug 5, In Niger a military
revolt spread to the capital, with mutinous soldiers opening fire
inside three garrisons in Niamey. Prime Minister Hama Amadou said
the city was under control after hours of gunfire.
(AP, 8/5/02)
2002 Aug 5, Six Pakistanis were
killed and at least three people wounded when masked men burst into
the compound of a Christian missionary school near the town of
Murree and opened fire.
(Reuters, 8/5/02)
2002 Aug 5, In Papua New Guinea
lawmakers elected founding father Michael Somare as the new prime
minister, as armed riot police surrounded Parliament.
(AP, 8/5/02)
2002 Aug 5, In northern Uganda
rebels overran a camp for Sudanese refugees, killing an undetermined
number of people and destroying equipment and supplies. Authorities
have found 30 more bodies at a refugee camp attacked and burned by
rebels in northern Uganda, bringing the death toll to 55.
(AP, 8/5/02)(AP, 8/7/02)
2002 Aug 5, The Vatican
excommunicated 7 women who claimed to have been recently ordained as
priests, because they had attacked the fundamental structure of the
Catholic Church. The 7 women, from Germany, Austria and the United
States, had defied an earlier Vatican warning to repent over their
participation in a June 29 ceremony which they claimed made them
priests.
(AP, 8/6/02)(WSJ, 8/6/02, p.A1)
2003 Aug 5, US Episcopal
leaders approved New Hampshire bishop-elect Rev. Gene Robinson as
the church's first openly gay bishop.
(SFC, 8/6/03, p.A1)
2003 Aug 5, A powerful car bomb
exploded in an apparent suicide attack outside the Marriott hotel in
downtown Jakarta, killing 10 people and wounding 149, including two
Americans. The head of Asmar Latin Sani (28), the suicide bomber,
landed on the 5th floor of the hotel.
(AP, 8/5/03)(SFC, 8/7/03, p.A3)(SFC, 8/9/03,
p.A3)
2003 Aug 5, Catalino "Tite"
Curet Alonso (77), a Puerto Rican composer who wrote nearly 2,000
dance songs and ballads, died in Baltimore.
(AP, 8/6/03)(SFC, 8/9/03, p.A15)
2004 Aug 5, Pres. Bush signed a
$417.5 billion wartime defense bill.
(SFC, 8/6/04, p.A16)
2004 Aug 5, Patrick Ryan (52),
New York City's director of ferries, pleaded not guilty to 11 counts
of manslaughter in the October 15, 2003, wreck of the Andrew J.
Barberi Staten Island ferry. Ryan later pleaded guilty to negligent
manslaughter.
(AP,
8/5/05)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_Staten_Island_Ferry_crash)
2004 Aug 5, John Forney (42),
Enron energy trader, pleaded guilty in SF to charges of fraud and
plotting to manipulate the market during the 2000-2001 California
energy crises.
(SFC, 8/6/04, p.A1)
2004 Aug 5, Alabama executed
James Hubbard (74) by lethal injection for the 1977 murder of
Lillian Montgomery (62). The 2-time killer was the oldest inmate
executed in the US since 1941, when James Stephens of Colorado was
executed at age 76. The oldest person executed in the 20th century
was 83-year-old Joe Lee of Virginia in 1916.
(www.clarkprosecutor.org/html/death/US/hubbard922.htm)(WSJ, 8/6/04,
p.A1)(SFC, 8/6/04, p.A2)
2004 Aug 4, The Georgia men's
basketball team was placed on four years' probation for rules
violations under former coach Jim Harrick.
(AP, 8/5/05)
2004 Aug 5, David Hicks,
Australian terror suspect held at the Guantanamo Bay base in Cuba,
signed an affidavit stating: "Interrogators once offered me the
services of a prostitute for 15 minutes if I would spy on other
detainees.” Hicks documented a number of physical abuses.
(Reuters, 12/9/04)
2004 Aug 4, Two-year-old twins
from the Philippines born with the tops of their heads fused
together were separated at Montefiore Medical Center in New York
City.
(AP, 8/5/05)
2004 Aug 5, A bomb exploded in
the parking lot of a hotel in northeastern Bangladesh city where the
opposition-backed mayor was holding a meeting, wounding at least 50
people.
(AP, 8/7/04)
2004 Aug 5, The death toll from
monsoons in Bangladesh and India reached 1,823.
(SFC, 8/5/04, p.A10)
2004 Aug 5, In eastern France a
predawn fire swept through an equestrian school, killing seven
teenagers and possibly two adults.
(AP, 8/5/04)
2004 Aug 5, Shiite cleric
Muqtada al-Sadr called on his supporters to rise against US-led
security forces. Fighting quickly spread to other Shiite areas,
threatening a shaky two-month-old truce. Insurgents blew up a bomb
in a minibus and opened fire on a crowd outside a police station
south of Baghdad, killing at least five people and wounding 21.
(AP, 8/5/04)(SFC, 8/6/04, p.A1)
2004 Aug 5, A Pakistan army
helicopter crashed amid the al Qaeda hunt and 13 people were killed.
(WSJ, 8/6/04, p.A1)
2004 Aug 5, A helicopter
conducting a forest survey crashed in northern Siberia after
apparent engine trouble, killing all 15-16 people aboard.
(AP, 8/5/04)
2004 Aug 5, Yemeni officials
said its army has launched a major offensive to quash a rebellion in
the northern mountains. About 50 soldiers and rebels have been
killed in the two days of fighting.
(AP, 8/5/04)
2005 Aug 5, VP Dick Cheney,
accompanied by former President George H.W. Bush and former
Secretary of State Colin Powell, paid respects to new Saudi King
Abdullah (81).
(AP, 8/5/05)(Econ, 8/6/05, p.10)
2005 Aug 5, US military sources
said a California Army National Guard Unit charged unauthorized
“rent” to Iraqi-owned businesses inside Baghdad’s Green Zone to
raise money for a “soldiers fund.”
(SFC, 8/6/05, p.A3)
2005 Aug 5, The NCAA announced
it would shut American Indian nicknames and images out of postseason
tournaments.
(AP, 8/5/06)
2005 Aug 5, Hunter Kelly (8),
whose battle with a nervous system disease inspired a fundraising
crusade by his father, Football Hall of Famer Jim Kelly, died in
Orchard Park, N.Y.
(AP, 8/5/06)
2005 Aug 5, PM Tony Blair
announced strict new measures that would allow Britain to deport
foreigners who preach hatred, sponsor violence or belong to
extremist groups.
(AP, 8/5/05)
2005 Aug 5, A CN Rail freight
trail derailed about 30 kilometers north of Squamish, BC, sending 9
cars plunging into the Cheakamus River canyon and causing a toxic
spill. One of the derailed cars was loaded with about 51,000 liters
of sodium hydroxide, a highly corrosive liquid.
(AP, 8/6/05)
2005 Aug 5, China’s government
said Ching Cheong, a Hong-Kong based reporter, has been charged with
spying for Taiwan. China accusing him of obtaining huge amounts of
classified information under an alias.
(AP, 8/5/05)
2005 Aug 5, Baidu.com, a
Chinese search engine, went public on Nasdaq and closed up 354% at
$122.54. it was named after a 900-year-old Song Dynasty love poem
about the search for a beautiful woman.
(SFC, 8/6/05, p.C1)(Econ, 8/13/05, p.50)
2005 Aug 5, Haiti’s American
ambassador said the US will provide Haitian police with firearms and
tear gas to aid the fight against militants ahead of elections this
fall.
(AP, 8/5/05)
2005 Aug 5, India's PM Manmohan
Singh took charge of a nationwide program to save the endangered
Bengal tiger, the national animal that experts say is threatened by
poachers and angry villagers.
(AP, 8/5/05)
2005 Aug 5, European
negotiators offered Iran long term support for its civilian nuclear
program, including access to nuclear fuel, in exchange for a binding
commitment not to develop atomic weapons. Iran rejected the offer.
(AP, 8/5/05)
2005 Aug 5, In Indonesia
Denver-based mining giant Newmont went on trial in a high-profile
legal battle over charges its Indonesian unit, Newmont Minahasa
Raya, dumped toxic waste and polluted Buyat Bay in North Sulawesi,
causing health problems to residents.
(AP, 8/5/05)
2005 Aug 5, US and Iraqi troops
repelled a series of coordinated insurgent attacks in southern
Baghdad, killing six rebels and capturing 12. At nearly the same
time, a suicide attacker drove a truck loaded with explosives into a
nearby Iraqi army checkpoint, killing an Iraqi soldier. A suicide
car bomber tried to attack another Iraqi position in the area, but a
US tank fired and hit the car, killing the driver and causing the
car bomb to explode prematurely.
(AP, 8/6/05)
2005 Aug 5, It was reported
that 3 men linked to the Irish Republican Army, who were convicted
of training rebels in Colombia, have returned surreptitiously to
Ireland, eight months after going on the run. Colombia demanded
their extradition.
(AP, 8/5/05)
2005 Aug 5, Police in Kashmir
detained at least 10 protesters as hundreds demonstrated against the
death sentence handed out to a Kashmiri Muslim for a raid on the
country's parliament four years ago.
(AP, 8/5/05)
2005 Aug 5, The UN appealed for
$80 million to fight a food crisis threatening the lives of hundreds
of thousands in Niger.
(AP, 8/5/05)
2005 Aug 5, Russia's
Agriculture ministry said bird flu has been officially confirmed in
two more Russian regions, and the disease may also be spreading in
Northern Kazakhstan.
(AP, 8/5/05)
2005 Aug 5, A Russian Priz
AS-28 mini-submarine carrying 7 sailors snagged on a fishing net and
was stuck 625 feet down on the Pacific floor off the Kamchatka
Peninsula. It had only enough air for crewmen to survive one day.
The US was rushing an unmanned vehicle there to help in rescue
efforts.
(AP, 8/5/05)(SFC, 8/6/05, p.A1)
2005 Aug 5, In southeastern
Turkey Kurdish rebels killed 5 Turkish soldiers in a rocket attack.
(AP, 8/5/05)
2006 Aug 5, The late Reggie
White was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame along with
Troy Aikman, Warren Moon, John Madden, Rayfield Wright and Harry
Carson.
(AP, 8/5/07)
2006 Aug 5, In Oakland, Ca.,
CHP Officer Brent Clearman (33) was critically wounded at the 66th
Ave. on-ramp in a hit-and-run incident. Clearman died the next day
of his severe injuries. Russell Rodrigues (47) surrendered on August
7, 2006, and pleaded guilty to felony hit-and-run charges on
September 26, 2006. He faced up to 4 years in prison.
(SFC, 9/27/06,
p.B7)(www.porac.org/lineofduty6.html)
2006 Aug 5, Susan Butcher (51),
four-time Iditarod champion, died in Seattle, Wa. In 1986 she became
the Alaska race's second female winner and brought increased
national attention to its grueling competition.
(AP, 8/6/06)
2006 Aug 5, Afghan and NATO
forces aided by air strikes killed 17 Taliban in southern
Afghanistan. A NATO soldier was killed and three were injured when
their armored jeep crashed in Kandahar province. Taliban attacked a
police patrol in southern Ghazni province overnight which left an
intelligence official and a rebel killed and two police wounded.
(AP, 8/5/06)(AFP, 8/5/06)(AP, 8/6/06)
2006 Aug 5, The US and France
reached agreement on a UN Security Council resolution aimed at
ending the fighting between Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah
guerrillas.
(AP, 8/5/06)
2006 Aug 5, Thousands marched
through London to demand a halt to the Lebanon war as the British
government tried to deflect criticism that it has failed to call for
an immediate ceasefire.
(AP, 8/5/06)
2006 Aug 5, Marie Stopes
International hosted Europe's first "Masturbate-a-thon" with the
HIV/AIDS charity the Terrence Higgins Trust. It expected up to 200
people to attend the sponsored masturbation session in Clerkenwell,
central London.
(Reuters, 8/5/06)
2006 Aug 5, Floyd Landis was
fired by his team and the Tour de France no longer considered him
its champion after his second doping sample tested positive for
higher-than-allowable levels of testosterone. Landis maintained his
innocence.
(AP, 8/5/07)
2006 Aug 5, In Iraq 2 members
of Saddam's former regime were shot dead in separate incidents. A US
soldier died in Anbar province.
(AP, 8/5/06)
2006 Aug 5, Israeli naval
commandos battled with Hezbollah in the southern port city of Tyre,
while a guerrilla rocket killed a soldier in clashes on the border
and Israeli raids left at least eight people dead in multiple
strikes across the country. The Lebanese government's Higher Relief
Council said 907 Lebanese had been killed in the conflict. 75
Israelis have been killed, 45 soldiers and 30 civilians.
(AP, 8/5/06)
2006 Aug 5, Israel pressed
ahead with its incursion into the southern Gaza Strip as airstrikes
killed 5 Palestinians, including a mother and her 2 children. Tanks
rolled to the edge of Rafah.
(AP, 8/5/06)
2006 Aug 5, Mexico's top
electoral court rejected a full recount in the disputed presidential
election, ordering a 9% partial count instead, angering leftist
protesters camped in the capital demanding a new vote-by-vote tally
over their fraud allegations.
(AP, 8/5/06)(WSJ, 8/7/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 5, A minister said
Nepal plans to seize lands owned by King Gyanendra and other royal
family members and distribute them to the poor as it moves toward
treating the monarch like a "normal citizen."
(AFP, 8/5/06)
2006 Aug 5, In northwestern
Pakistan a bridge collapsed amid heavy rains, killing at least 23
people.
(AP, 8/5/06)
2006 Aug 5, Interfax news said
Russian police have detained the husband of a museum curator and a
2nd person suspected of stealing hundreds of artworks from St.
Petersburg’s Hermitage Museum.
(Reuters, 8/5/06)
2006 Aug 5, Russia's
state-controlled arms trader and top aircraft maker criticized
Washington for imposing sanctions on them over dealings with Iran.
The defense ministry said the move reflected US annoyance at arms
sales to Venezuela. A Russian rocket carrying US telecommunications
equipment blasted off, 10 days after another rocket carrying 18
satellites crashed after launch.
(AP, 8/5/06)
2006 Aug 5, Sri Lankan soldiers
retook control of Muttur after six days of fighting Tamil rebels
there, and the military urged thousands of displaced civilians to
return.
(AP, 8/5/06)
2007 Aug 5, President Bush and
Afghan President Hamid Karzai began meeting at Camp David to discuss
security issues in Afghanistan.
(AP, 8/5/08)
2007 Aug 5, Scientists reported
that the skin condition called rosacea is caused by an abundance of
abnormal cathelicidin skin proteins.
(SFC, 8/6/07, p.A10)
2007 Aug 5, Comedian Stanley
Myron Handelman (b.1929) died in Panorama City, Calif.
(AP,
8/5/08)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Myron_Handelman)
2007 Aug 5, In Afghanistan 3
policemen were killed when a remotely detonated mine tore through
their vehicle in the eastern province of Kunar. A gunfight, which
began the previous evening, left two policemen dead and two others
wounded. At least four militants were killed. A roadside bomb
typical of those deployed by the Taliban killed two Afghan civilians
in the southern province of Kandahar. A policeman was killed in an
overnight attack on his post by several Taliban rebels. Four police
officers were killed in the southern province of Logar just south of
the capital Kabul when they were ambushed on patrol overnight.
(AFP, 8/5/07)
2007 Aug 5, Colombia's navy
seized a 65-foot submarine that likely was used to haul tons of
cocaine on part of its journey to the United States. The
blue-colored, diesel-powered vessel had sophisticated communications
systems and was capable of carrying up to 11 tons of cocaine.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 5, Two boxers
(Guillermo Rigondeaux (25), Cuba's top boxer and a two-time Olympic
bantamweight champion, and Erislandy Lara (24), an amateur
welterweight world champion) deported by Brazil were back in Cuba
after they disappeared during the Pan American Games last month and
were arrested at a resort where officials said they partied and ran
up an exorbitant bill.
(AP, 8/5/07)
2007 Aug 5, The last men of a
Danish battalion of 450 ground troops left Iraq.
(AFP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 5, A group of armed,
masked men burst into a museum in the southern French city of Nice
and made off with a painting by French master Claude Monet and two
others by Flemish artist Pieter Brueghel. The paintings were
recovered on June 4, 2008, in a sting operation that captured 3 men
near Marseilles.
(AP, 8/5/07)(AP, 6/5/08)(WSJ, 8/22/08, p.W1)
2007 Aug 5, French Cardinal
Jean-Marie Lustiger (80) died. He was a Jew who converted to
Catholicism and rose through church hierarchy to become one of the
most influential Roman Catholic figures in France.
(AP, 8/5/07)(Econ, 8/18/07, p.76)
2007 Aug 5, Iran showed off for
the first time a new fighter jet said to be modeled on the American
F-5 but built using domestic technology. The "Azarakhsh" (Lightning)
jet, one of the first to be home-produced by Iran, made a successful
flight in the central city of Isfahan.
(AFP, 8/5/07)
2007 Aug 5, The US military
said 80 suspected insurgents were detained in US and Iraqi raids in
the Samarra area over the past week. 13 people were killed and 14
wounded by mortar shells in southeast Baghdad. 6 gunmen were killed
and ten others arrested during clashes with Iraqi soldiers in Mosul.
Fierce fighting was reported in northwest Baghdad around midday
between Iraqi soldiers and members of the Mahdi Army. 60 bodies were
found in a mainly Sunni area that had been under the control of
al-Qaida in Iraq west of Baqouba. At least 29 people were killed or
found dead in other parts of Iraq. The US military said its troops
killed 4 suspects and detained 7 others in operations across the
country targeting al-Qaida in Iraq. A US soldier was killed and two
were wounded during fighting in eastern Baghdad.
(AP, 8/5/07)(AP, 8/6/07)
2007 Aug 5, Army and police
patrols stood guard as thousands of Lebanese went to polling
stations to vote in a key election to replace two assassinated
lawmakers. A little-known opposition candidate defeated a former
president in a tense parliament by-election that showed the
divisions among Lebanon's once-dominant Christians. Pro-Syrian
Parliament speaker Nabih Berri has said he would not recognize the
results of the two by-elections because they were called by what he
and the rest of the opposition consider an illegitimate government.
The by-elections were held despite the refusal of the president,
Lahoud, to approve them, as required.
(AP, 8/5/07)(AP, 8/6/07)
2007 Aug 5, Jose Guadalupe
Osuna (51) of Mexico’s National Action Party won the elections for
governor in Baha California. He defeated PRI candidate Jorge Hank, a
former mayor of Tijuana and self-proclaimed billionaire with links
to organized crime.
(SFC, 8/7/07, p.A9)
2007 Aug 5, Mozambique state
radio said authorities had seized thousands of boxes of counterfeit
toothpaste that they fear may contain a potentially deadly chemical.
(AP, 8/6/07)
2007 Aug 5, In Nigeria 18 men
were arrested in remote northern Bauchi state, where they were found
with women's apparel as they prepared for a gay wedding. They faced
charges of sodomy in a Nigerian Islamic court. They were accused of
lesser crimes in court but angry crowds reacted violently. Three
weeks later they were rearrested and charged with more severe crimes
including indecent acts and faced 10 years in jail if found guilty.
(AP, 8/10/07)(Econ, 10/13/07, p.49)
2007 Aug 5, A junior partner in
Poland's ruling coalition said it was pulling out of the partnership
and withdrawing its two ministers from government in a move that
could set the scene for early legislative elections.
(AFP, 8/5/07)
2007 Aug 5, Florian Pittis
(63), Romanian actor and folk musician, died of cancer. He helped
popularize Western rock bands in communist Romania.
(AP, 8/6/07)
2007 Aug 5, Darfur's fractious
rebel groups held a third day of reconciliation talks in Tanzania in
a bid to present a united front at future peace talks with Khartoum.
(AP, 8/5/07)
2007 Aug 5, An official said
Turkey's secular military expelled 10 officers for being
"reactionary," a euphemism for Islamist activities, along with 13
others accused of lack of discipline.
(AP, 8/5/07)
2008 Aug 5, President Bush got
a mixed reception in South Korea at the start of his three-nation
Asian trip. About 30,000 people gathered in front of Seoul City Hall
for an afternoon Christian prayer service supporting Bush's trip. As
evening approached police fired water cannons at an estimated 20,000
anti-Bush protesters gathered nearby.
(AP, 8/5/08)
2008 Aug 5, The US Energy
Department said that even if no new reactors are built, getting rid
of the country's nuclear waste will cost $96.2 billion and require a
major expansion of the planned Nevada waste dump beyond limits
imposed by Congress.
(AP, 8/5/08)
2008 Aug 5, The US government
charged 11 people with stealing tens of millions of credit and debit
card numbers from major retailers including TJX Cos Inc, in one of
the largest reported identity-theft incidents on record.
(Reuters, 8/5/08)
2008 Aug 5, The US General
Accounting Office predicted Iraq could finish the year with as much
as a $79 billion cumulative budget surplus due to the influx of oil
revenues. The GAO estimated that Iraqi oil revenues from 2005
through the end of this year will amount to at least $156 billion.
(AP, 8/7/08)
2008 Aug 5, Aafia Siddiqui, a
Pakistani woman once identified as a possible al-Qaida associate,
was extradited from Afghanistan and arraigned in New York on charges
that she tried to kill US agents and military officers. Siddiqui was
educated at Brandeis and MIT and fled to Pakistan after 9/11 because
of anti-Muslim sentiment. She and her children dropped out of sight
in March 2003, after 9/11 mastermind Khalid sheikh Mohammed
mentioned her name during an interrogation. She was arrested by
Afghan police on July 17, who found recipes for explosives and
descriptions of New York landmarks in her handbag. Siddiqui is the
wife of Ammar al-Baluchi, a nephew of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who
was believed to be the chief planner of the Sep 11, 2001, attacks.
(SFC, 8/6/08, p.A3)(WSJ, 8/6/08, p.A7)(SSFC,
8/24/08, p.A5)
2008 Aug 5, Texas executed Jose
Medellin (33) for the 1993 rape and killing of two teenage girls in
Houston. Mexico protested the execution, which took place despite a
world court ruling for a new hearing, and expressed concern for the
rights of other Mexicans detained in the US. On Jan 19, 2009, the
International Court of Justice at The Hague ruled that the US defied
its order when authorities in Texas last year executed a Mexican
convicted of rape and murder.
(AP, 8/6/08)(AP, 1/19/09)
2008 Aug 5, John A. "Junior"
Gotti (44) was arrested at his Long Island home on charges linking
him to three New York murders. In 1999 Junior Gotti pleaded guilty
to racketeering crimes including bribery, extortion, gambling and
fraud. He was sentenced to 77 months in prison and was released in
2005.
(AP, 8/5/08)
2008 Aug 5, The Chinese Embassy
in Washington revoked the visa of Joey Cheek, 2006 Olympic gold
medalist, effectively barring the speedskating champion from the
2008 Olympics. Cheek had co-founded Team Darfur, an organization of
athletes attempting to draw attention to human rights violations in
Darfur.
(SFC, 8/6/08, p.A8)
2008 Aug 5, In California 9
firefighters were killed and 4 injured when their helicopter crashed
after battling a blaze in Trinity County. Investigators in 2010
concluded that lax federal oversight and Carson Helicopter’s
decision to underestimate the craft’s weight led to the crash.
(SFC, 8/7/08, p.A1)(SFC, 12/8/10, p.C7)
2008 Aug 5, A magnitude 6.0
earthquake rocked the western Chinese provinces of Sichuan and
Gansu, killing one person and injuring 23 near the site of May's
devastating quake that killed at least 70,000 people.
(Reuters, 8/5/08)
2008 Aug 5, Wildlife
researchers said they have discovered some 125,000 western lowland
gorillas deep in the forests of the Republic of Congo.
(WSJ, 8/6/08, p.A10)
2008 Aug 5, The EU said it will
give Haiti $4.6 million to help pay for food in the world's poorest
country.
(AP, 8/5/08)
2008 Aug 5, In Iran Ali Kordan
was narrowly approved as the new interior minister. An honorary
Oxford degree that he cited was soon disclosed as a fake.
(SFC, 8/14/08, p.A11)
2008 Aug 5, It was reported
that Muqtada al-Sadr planned to reorganize his Mahdi Army militia
into a social services organization. Gunmen killed Sheik Ibrahim
al-Karbouli, a senior leader of a US-allied Sunni group, and six of
his guards in an ambush in Youssifiyah. Police also discovered the
bodies of three awakening council members who were abducted several
days ago. Roadside bombings also killed another person and wounded a
dozen, in a second consecutive day of bombings in the capital.
(WSJ, 8/4/08, p.A1)(AP, 8/5/08)
2008 Aug 5, In Japan 4 people
were missing after being washed away by a surge of sewage water
while working in a manhole in downtown Tokyo.
(AP, 8/5/08)
2008 Aug 5, In Montenegro 4
Michigan residents were among 12 ethnic Albanians convicted of
plotting a rebellion to carve out a homeland within the tiny Balkan
republic.
(AP, 8/5/08)
2008 Aug 5, Officials in
Pakistan said floods triggered by heavy monsoon rains have destroyed
thousands of homes and caused at least 27 deaths in the last 24
hours.
(AP, 8/5/08)
2008 Aug 5, Rwanda formally
accused senior French officials of involvement in its 1994 genocide.
(Reuters, 8/5/08)
2008 Aug 5, Serbia's war
crimes prosecutor's office indicted Branko Grujic and Branko Popovic
in the 1992 killing of about 700 Muslims in eastern Bosnia. The
killings took place near the town of Zvornik on the border with
Bosnia.
(AP, 8/5/08)
2008 Aug 5, In Turkey an oil
pipeline that has allowed the West to tap the rich fields of
Azerbaijan, bypassing Iran and Russia, was set on fire. A Kurdish
rebel organization later admitted sabotaging the pipeline.
(AP, 8/7/08)
2008 Aug 5, The UN said heavy
rains and storms have led to some of the worst floods in 40 years in
parts of Ukraine, Moldova and Romania since July 22, causing great
damage to homes, infrastructure and farmland. In Ukraine, 34 people
have been killed in the west of the country along the Dnestr and
Prut rivers; in Moldova, three people are reported to have drowned
in the capital Chisinau; in Romania five people have been killed.
(AFP, 8/5/08)
2008 Aug 5, Venezuela's Supreme
Court ruled that a list barring hundreds of candidates suspected of
corruption from running in elections is constitutional, despite
complaints that it singles out opponents of President Hugo Chavez.
(AP, 8/5/08)
2009 Aug 5, Euna Lee (36) and
Laura Ling (32), American journalists freed by North Korea, returned
home to the United States along with former Pres. Clinton for a
jubilant, emotional reunion with family members and friends they
hadn't seen since their arrests on March 17.
(AP, 8/5/09)
2009 Aug 5, Federal jurors in
Alexandria, Va., convicted former Louisiana Rep. William Jefferson
on 11 0f 16 counts that included bribery, racketeering and money
laundering. The next day jurors said Jefferson must forfeit $470,000
in bribery receipts. On Nov 13 he was sentenced to 13 years in
prison.
(SFC, 8/6/09, p.A6)(SFC, 8/7/09, p.A5)(SFC,
11/14/09, p.A7)
2009 Aug 5, In Arizona Brenda
Arenas (15), was shot in the head during a botched carjacking in
Tucson. She died in her mother's arms soon after the attack. Her
3-year-old sister watched the crime from the backseat of the car. On
Jan 29, 2011, Orel Vasquez (20) Christian Vasquez (26), and Juan
Leon (29) approached a border crossing point at Nogales and told US
officers they were wanted for the shooting and were turning
themselves in.
(Reuters, 1/30/11)
2009 Aug 5, Outraged southern
Afghan villagers said that a pre-dawn airstrike by foreign troops
killed three children and a man in the latest case of civilian
deaths at the hands of Western troops. A US military spokeswoman
said a helicopter had fired on four insurgents carrying jugs on
motorcycles through a field away from a populated area of the local
district, Arghandab. In eastern Nangarhar province a roadside bomb
killed two tribal elders and four armed guards. Across southern
Afghanistan roadside explosions and a US airstrike killed at least
15 people, including members of a family who hit a mine on their way
to a wedding party.
(AP, 8/5/09)(AP, 8/6/09)
2009 Aug 5, Australian police
charged four men with planning to attack an army base and shoot
soldiers as the government considered whether to ban a Somalia
militant group linked to the plot.
(Reuters, 8/5/09)
2009 Aug 5, In Colombia David
Murcia Guzman, a Colombian businessman, was convicted in a notorious
pyramid scheme that authorities say bilked investors out of more
than $2.4 billion. Guzman was convicted of money laundering and
illegal wealth accumulation through the company he founded, DMG
Group Holdings SA. A New York court has sought his extradition.
Murcia was extradited to the US on Jan 5, 2009.
(AP, 8/5/09)(AP, 1/5/10)
2009 Aug 5, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
was sworn in for a second term as Iran's president while security
forces battled hundreds of protesters chanting "Death to the
Dictator" in the streets around parliament where the ceremony was
held.
(AP, 8/5/09)
2009 Aug 5, Amos Kenan
(b.1927), Israeli artist and writer, died in Tel Aviv. As a member
of Israel's founding generation his writing and art helped define
modern Israeli culture. Kenan was party to several efforts to create
an alliance with the Palestinians. He helped pen a 1957 manifesto
calling for the creation of a Palestinian state in federation with
Israel at a time when few Israelis acknowledged the Palestinians'
existence as a national group.
(AP, 8/5/09)
2009 Aug 5, In Nairobi, Kenya,
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton criticized Kenya for
rampant graft and corruption as she made the case that business and
trade across Africa cannot grow without good governance and solid
democracy.
(AP, 8/5/09)
2009 Aug 5, In Mexico 5 bodies,
one of them headless, were found in a van in the border city of
Ciudad Juarez. US Sen. Patrick Leahy a Democrat from Vermont,
delayed the release of $100 million of a $1.4 billion, three-year
package meant to help Mexico combat drug traffickers. Leahy said
Mexico needs effective police forces and a justice system that
works.
(AP, 8/5/09)
2009 Aug 5, In Pakistan the 2nd
wife of Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud was killed in a US drone
attack targeting her husband at a home in the tribal belt near the
Afghan border. Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud was also killed in the
US missile strike in South Waziristan. He had led a violent campaign
of suicide attacks and assassinations against the Pakistani
government. News of his death was not made public until 2 days
later.
(AFP, 8/5/09)(AP, 8/7/09)
2009 Aug 5, In South Korea
helicopter-borne police commandos fought militant strikers at the
Ssangyong Motor Co.’s Pyeongtaek factory, seizing all but one key
building.
(SFC, 8/5/09, p.A2)
2009 Aug 5, Venezuela’s
President Hugo Chavez said his government will buy dozens of Russian
tanks because Venezuela feels threatened by a pending deal for the
US military to increase its presence in neighboring Colombia.
(AP, 8/6/09)
2009 Aug 5, Zimbabwe's veteran
Vice-President Joseph Msika (86) died. His death was expected to
reignite debate over who will eventually succeed President Robert
Mugabe.
(Reuters, 8/5/09)
2010 Aug 5, The US Senate voted
63-37 to confirm Elena Kagan (b.1960) to the Supreme Court.
(SFC, 8/6/10, p.A5)
2010 Aug 5, US federal
indictments were unsealed in Alabama, California and Minnesota
charging 14 people with terrorism offenses for allegedly aiding the
radical Islamist al-Shaba organization in Somalia.
(SFC, 8/6/10, p.A8)
2010 Aug 5, In Missouri 2
people, a pickup driver and a 15-year-old student on a bus, were
killed and 38 others were injured in an accident on the interstate
highway near Gray Summit. In 2011 it was reported that a pickup
driver (19) was texting just before his pickup truck, two school
buses and a tractor truck collided in the deadly pileup.
(AP, 12/12/11)
2010 Aug 5, A federal judge in
Montana reinstated protections for wolves in Montana and Idaho.
(SFC, 8/6/10, p.A5)
2010 Aug 5, The US
Export-Import Bank unveiled a loan guarantee for Ford Motor Co that
will finance $3.1 billion in exports of cars and trucks to customers
in Canada and Mexico.
(Reuters, 8/5/10)
2010 Aug 5, Extreme
temperatures in a large swath of the US left over a dozen people
dead.
(SFC, 8/6/10, p.A5)
2010 Aug 5, Afghan Pres. Karzai
departed to attend a summit held among the presidents of host
country Iran, Tajikistan and Afghanistan. Following the summit Feda
Hussein Maliki, Iran’s ambassador to Afghanistan, handed Umar
Daudzai, Karzai’s chief of staff, a large plastic bag stuffed with
euro bills. The money was part of a secret stream of Iranian cash to
buy the loyalty of Daudzai and promote Iran’s interests in
Afghanistan’s presidential palace. It was later reported that
Daudzai owns at least 6 homes located in Dubai, in the UAR and in
Vancouver, Canada.
(SSFC, 10/24/10, p.A8)
2010 Aug 5, In northern
Afghanistan a suicide car bomber struck a convoy of NATO troops and
Afghan police, killing seven police officers and wounding at least
11 people. 9 civilians were killed by a remote-controlled bomb in
the Bar Kunar district of Kunar province. 3 civilians were killed
and others were wounded in a different blast in the Qarabagh
district of Ghazni province. In the south, Malak Janan, a tribal
chief in Kandahar province's Dand district, and his son were killed
when gunmen entered their home and shot them. 10 members of a
medical team were shot and killed by militants as they were
returning from providing eye treatment and other health care in
remote villages.
(AP, 8/5/10)(AP, 8/6/10)(AP, 8/15/10)
2010 Aug 5, Bolivia's leftist
government said it has begun military training for civilians at army
barracks in what the opposition called a first step toward creating
pro-government militias.
(AP, 8/5/10)
2010 Aug 5, In northern Chile
the collapse of a small mine left 33 miners trapped, though they
could have taken refuge in an underground shelter with oxygen and
food. On Aug 9 Pres. Pinera pleaded for int’l. help to rescue the
miners. Rescue efforts reached the miners on Aug 22, it could take
months to carve a tunnel big enough for them to get out. On Feb 2,
2011, a congressional commission found gold and copper mine owners
Alejandro Bohn and Marcelo Kemeny responsible for the accident that
left the miners trapped for 69 days.
(Reuters, 8/6/10)(SFC, 8/9/10, p.A2)(SFC, 3/3/11,
p.A2)
2010 Aug 5, Haitian hip-hop
star Wyclef Jean registered as a presidential contender, in a move
into politics that generated an outburst of popular enthusiasm in
his poor, earthquake-ravaged homeland.
(Reuters, 8/6/10)
2010 Aug 5, In Iraq gunmen
stormed a Baghdad money exchange and killed three people, the latest
in recent brash daylight attacks on banks, financial and trade
centers in the Iraqi capital, many of which have been blamed on
insurgents.
(AP, 8/5/10)
2010 Aug 5, Israel’s Shin Bet
security service reported that two Druse Arabs living in the Golan
Heights and an Arab citizen of Israel were charged with passing
information to the enemy and plotting to kidnap a Syrian pilot who
had defected to Israel.
(AP, 8/5/10)
2010 Aug 5, In
Indian-controlled Kashmir the death toll from civil unrest rose to
48 after two more people were killed when paramilitary forces opened
fire on demonstrators angry about decades of Indian rule over the
Himalayan region.
(AP, 8/5/10)
2010 Aug 5, Kyrgyzstan
government forces fired into the air to disperse hundreds of
anti-government forces and arrested Urmat Baryktabasov, leader of
the Mekin-Tuu political party, backed by the family of former Pres.
Bakiyev.
(SFC, 8/6/10, p.A4)
2010 Aug 5, In the Netherlands
Naomi Campbell testified before a war crimes tribunal that she had
received some "dirty-looking stones" after a 1997 dinner party with
former Liberian ruler Charles Taylor. Still, the supermodel said she
didn't know if the stones were actually diamonds or if the gift came
from Taylor himself. Campbell said that she gave the stones to a
friend, Jeremy Ratcliffe, who was the director of the Nelson Mandela
Children's Fund, intending he use them for charity.
(AP, 8/5/10)
2010 Aug 5, Pakistan began
evacuating half a million people from flood-risk areas in the south
as the overall number hit by the country's worst floods in living
memory rose to more than four million. US Army choppers flew their
first relief missions in the flood-ravaged northwest.
(AFP, 8/5/10)(AP, 8/5/10)
2010 Aug 5, In the southern
Philippines a powerful bombing killed a man and wounded about a
dozen other people including a provincial governor at the Zamboanga
city airport.
(AP, 8/5/10)
2010 Aug 5, In Russia wildfires
were raging close to a shelter housing hundreds of dogs and retired
circus animals, as the death toll from weeks of blazes across the
country rose to 50.
(AP, 8/5/10)
2010 Aug 5, Somali pirates
seized the Syria Star, a freighter with 22 Syrian and 2 Egyptian
crew members in the lawless waters of the Gulf of Aden, in the 2nd
pirate capture this week.
(AFP, 8/6/10)
2010 Aug 5, In Tanzania 20
school children were feared drowned and 20 rescued after a boat they
were traveling in capsized on the Tanzanian side of Lake Victoria.
(AP, 8/6/10)
Go to
http://www.timelinesdb.com
Go to August 6